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watermanio

37 karma · joined March 31, 2016

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watermanio··on We don't need data scientists, we need data engineers
This feels especially true when you have access to things like BigQuery ML.

It's very easy for an average engineer (like me) to start using ML using these tools, but a lot harder to explain how it works, or exactly which type of models to use.

In my mind a DS would be really useful to just point us in the right direction and check work. Like a super specialist QA...

watermanio··on I miss Microsoft Encarta (2019)
My Dad was too cheap for Encarta. We had a shareware version called something like Infopedia. I remember doing a homework project at a friend's house and being quite jealous of the proper version!
watermanio··on Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months
My last home was built about 5 years ago, and the house builder had fitted fibre ducting to the curb, but when OpenReach turned up they came with a ladder and slung up a copper cable.

Maybe on a massive development they will install brand new street cabinets, but anything smaller than a few hundred homes, copper is still the standard.

watermanio··on Insurers Know How Often American Drivers Touch Their Phones
There are probably simpler ways - for example, if an accident report states there was only one person in the car, it was probably the driver using his phone.
watermanio··on How the Dutch created a casual biking culture
> dangerous misinformation

Oh come on, making a V sign is not dangerous. Most likely, someone shouts an original insult to you.

watermanio··on UK Government's Payment Infrastructure Is Now Open Source
But you still have to give the Verify companies enough data that a breach of their systems would be very serious. Eg. If the Post Office (an organisation that recently falsely sent a load of employees to prison due to their own cocked up IT project) gets hacked, they have (or could have) dates of birth, 6 years of addresses, email addresses, etc. of a good number of gov.uk users.
watermanio··on UK Government's Payment Infrastructure Is Now Open Source
I still can't believe people are happy using Verify.

I very reluctantly tried to use it as I don't want to give all my data to any of the companies you listed, and yet it failed to identify me using the two companies I was allowed to pick.

I really don't see how it's acceptable to force users to give so much personal data to a handful of randomly selected private companies, on the off-chance that they already have it.

watermanio··on Websites offering pirated papers are shaking up science
There was a good article on the vast money charged by these journals in the Guardian last week. Although the publishers business does seem pretty robust, there are at least winds of change from universities and governments who fund this research that are finally saying enough is enough...

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-b...

watermanio··on Stock options are complicated
On the other hand, if you are lucky enough to work somewhere in the UK that grants options, those options are likely void the moment you leave the company so this entire discussion wouldn't even take place.

I've been granted options twice, both times essentially designed to stop people leaving during a rough period. Given how few UK startups float it wasn't much of an incentive!